In the field of printing presses, in particular in the field of web-fed rotary printing presses, it is desired to reduce press downtime which occurs, for example, when exchanging the printing blanket on the blanket cylinders of the press. Over time, the printing operation results in deterioration of the printing blankets causing a corresponding decrease in the quality of the printed image. Of course, when the quality of the printed image has deteriorated beyond an acceptable level, the blankets must be replaced. In addition, printing blankets may be damaged by objects passing through any of the nips between, for example, the blanket cylinder and the plate cylinder or between two associated blanket cylinders in a perfecting unit for printing on both sides of a running web. Furthermore, after a web break, one end of the torn web may become wrapped around a blanket cylinder forming a hardened layer of ink and paper. Thus, the printing blankets must be removed so that the hardened layer of ink and paper may be mechanically removed afterwards.
More recently, high speed web-fed rotary printing presses have used blanket cylinders carrying removable tubular endless printing blankets. These gapless blanket cylinders have improved printing quality at high speeds by reducing vibrations and impact forces resulting from the asymmetrical construction of conventional grooved cylinders which excite the bending forces on the cylinders.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,949,852 describes an undriven light-weight printing roll for a printing press having a tubular body of extruded aluminum. End caps having cone-shaped recesses for receiving cone-shaped shaft end members are formed at the ends of the tubular body. The shaft is rigidly attached to the printing roll which is rotatably supported by side walls of a housing of the printing press.
DE 44 42 575 C1 purports to describe a mechanism for coupling a removable solid cylinder of a printing press to a drive gear, wherein the drive gear remains in the housing of the printing press after the removal of the cylinder. A shaft which is axially movable by means of a pneumatic cylinder coupled to one end thereof extends through the center of the drive gear to rotatably couple the solid cylinder to the drive gear. The other end of the shaft acts upon a toothed collar drivingly connected to the drive gear which, in turn, engages a second toothed collar formed at an adjoining end portion of the solid cylinder.